This is from an exchange of emails I had concerning someone asking whether game sales mean quality.
Hi again!
Well my opponents say that games are an art and should be measured by people who “know” art. Here are some of their arguments i short form:
– Is a Volvo better then a Rolls Royce because it sells better?
– If better sales mean a better product then Twilight New Moon would be the best movie in 2009, that isn’t the case.
– Better sales only indicate that the product is more popular not better.
And other arguments like that follow page after page. They have taken a quote from a swdish author that says this: “A product has the right quality at the satisfaction of the user / customer requirements, needs and expectations.” Then they go on that there isn’t any connection in the book between quality/good product/etc. and sales.
This is a question I’ve been searching for a deffinitve answer for. One of my teachers said that it is true that a product that has good sales is better then a product with lesser sales. Another one said the opposite.
I’m really confused about this. I want to say that a good product gets better sales but I just can’t find a good definition or quote in a book that strengthens my thesis. That’s why I’m turning to you. Hope you can solve this little problem.
My immediate answer to this is, “What other indicator is there of quality than sales? When someone is able to hand over hard earned money to purchase something, that means the customer wants it badly enough.”
No one has yet offered any other reliable indicator of quality other than sales. Game reviews are a joke as many of them are fake. So what other indicator could there be than longterm sales? Keep in mind, I am referring about legitimate sales. I am not referring to a practice such as occurs in the book industry when a politician’s book is bought by boxes in mass (and burned in mass too) just to pop the book up on the New York Times Best Seller List. I don’t think there is any instance that occurs with video games that comes close to that.
Let me spin the question around. Does greater salary mean greater quality? Quality… defined as what? Well, defined by the desire and scarcity of your skill by the employer.
I can sing. I can dance. But are people willing to pay to hear Sean Malstrom sing and dance? The answer is, alas, no. No one is willing to pay to hear me sing and dance (even though I can!).
But people were willing to pay Michael Jackson to hear him sing and dance when he was alive.
I can play basketball. I can shoot hoops. But is anyone willing to pay money to watch Sean Malstrom play basketball? Once again, alas, the answer is no. No one wants to pay money to watch me play basketball. But people will pay money to watch Michael Jordan.
I can play golf too! But no one is willing to pay money to watch me play golf. But people are willing to pay to watch Tiger Woods play golf. You get the pattern.
Is Michael Jackson a better singer and dancer than Sean Malstrom? All you can do is point to sales. People were willing to pay to listen and watch him. People, alas, are not willing to watch me sing and dance.
What sales indicate are customers. The question is not whether sales determines quality. The question is, “Do customers determine quality?” And the answer to that is an astounding YES!
Jets are constantly outsold by bicycles. Does this mean bicycles are a better form of transportation? Seeing how very few people can purchase a jet, and even fewer than that can pay the jet fuel needed for the jet (you won’t believe the price of jet fuel these days!), the bicycle is better. An economy car is better than a sports car in that it is allowing people to drive around (where they couldn’t before).
And this brings us to an important topic on disruption. Disruption occurs on the low ends. How did electricity get spread commercially? How did we go from a civilization of candles and fireplaces to a civilization of electric bulbs? Shumpeter said that electricity failed to spread earlier was because kings and other heads of state saw no purpose for it. And why should they? They had servants put out their candles and servants make their food. Something like electricity has allowed us to live as rich as a king.
Things sell because they make people happy or are useful. Greater sales, of course, occur on the lower end of the market than the higher end. It is easier to sell a jet ski than a yacht. Is the jet ski better than a yacht? Seeing how it allows more people access to the water, I’d say so.
So when it comes to games like Let’s Dance to Carnival Games, are those games of quality? Well, someone is buying them for a reason. And when you talk to someone who bought Let’s Dance, they will admit that they play the game constantly especially when friends are over. People laugh and have a good time. Isn’t that what games are supposed to do?
If sales do not indicate quality, what is stop someone saying the N-gage is the best portable gaming device ever? Or that this generation’s masterpiece is Lair?
So why do people not want to accept that sales (i.e. customers) indicate quality? This is a far more fun question to me.
Check out this link to Ars Technica saying that sales shouldn’t be used to indicate quality. What is said about musicians liking low sales is laughable. Believe me, they want high sales. Everyone does. But if they have low sales, they try to shrug off defeat by saying they were ‘too sophisticated’ for the market. Har har!
The nice thing about being a fan of games is that we don’t work for a publisher, and we don’t have to worry about whether or not a game turns a profit… unless we’re hoping for a sequel. Once the game is made, and the disc and case—or download—is in our possession, the only thing we need to care about is whether or not the game is good. We need to re-contextualize the argument: a game isn’t a success when it sells more than 500,000 copies or whatever we’ve decided the number is this month; a game is a success when it’s fun to play, gives you satisfaction, and allows you to enjoy an evening or afternoon with yourself or some friends. It’s easy to list great games that sold poorly, or poor games that sold great.
The next time someone argues numbers when you’re discussing the worth of a game, gently remind them that you’re a gamer, not an executive. All things being equal, we have much less worries, and many more opportunities to find the gold… no matter how many other people pass it by.
The reason why people keep trying to insist that sales are not quality is because they cannot tolerate that the business side is defining, in their view, the artistic side.
Oh, that awful business side! Full of corporate drones! Full of numbers! What a dull, dry, dreary world! But the art side… My goodness! Bring out the red wine. Turn up the music. The ‘business side’ is ‘sub-human’ while the art side allows us to fully be human.
That is the mentality going on with those protesting that sales do not indicate quality (what are sales? Customers. And customers are people).
One of the things I wish to change with this website is the myth that business is dull, dry, and dreary. That it is nothing but numbers. To the contrary, the artist is a dull shallow figure compared to the businessman. Business is really all about emotion. You could even say that business is not even really about money but about time. A businessman has inverse values where they value their time more than their money (as a businessman understands that you can always borrow more money, but you are extremely limited with your time on Earth. No one has ever figured out how to extend it). When businessmen really talk, they say some of the most incredible things. Things an artist could never possibly say despite all their ‘creativity’.
Sales are not just numbers in a financial statement. Sales are indicators of flesh and blood human beings. Sales indicate the level of audience.
Does the size of the audience determine the quality of the show? Even artists are going to have to admit that yes, it does.
People have problems with having sales determining quality because they are unable, or unwilling, to allow the business context to intertwine with their life. So sales become ‘business’ which is ‘dull, dry, and dreary’. It is the stuff of accountants and even more boring salesmen.
When the Industrial Revolution was coming around, there were people who did not want to learn how to read. They wanted to remain farmers. It was comfortable to them. But they were being left behind. It wasn’t just reading but the emotional processes that an academic education brought. Those who refused to learn how to read (or worse were denied the opportunity) were not stupid people. It just made no sense in their period of time.
Now, we have what I call the Silicon Revolution coming around and it is changing everything. Instead of the call to read as happened to your forefathers, you need to learn to embrace the business side. Is it boring? Dully, dreary, and dry? This is because no one has shown you the good stuff. It is like people hating Shakespeare because of how it was taught to them in classrooms. The process of sales, marketing, and finances is very exciting and far more interesting than anything we’ve seen.
You’ve gotten a taste of the exciting world of business with how this console market swings wildly one way or another. You’ve gotten a taste of the exciting world of business when you had the ‘aha!’ moment in seeing what disruption or Blue Ocean was. And what is fun is that all this stuff will lead to you becoming wealthier (and likely more manly as a certain appreciation of risk is involved).
Sales are not about profit and numbers. Sales are about customers. Sales are about the quality customers see in the product that they are willing to pay money for it.
Customers define quality in products. And what other indication of customers is there but sales?
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